CObirders, The ABA changed their rules for counting reintroduced indigenous birds on 9/27/14. Populations no longer need to be self-sustaining. They only need to have "successfully hatched young in the wild." This has caused a lot of discussion on the AZ/NM listserv regarding condors, which are now legal to count.
Do I recall correctly that a condor was reported from southwestern CO a few years ago? If so, would those who chased it and saw it be able to count it now? There is an ABA rule that lets a bird observed in the past "when it was not considered a valid species" to be counted when it becomes a valid species. I guess you'd have to determine if there had been successful hatching of young in AZ before you saw the bird in CO. The in-house discussion of the decision to make the rule change is very interesting, particularly the lone dissenter's statement. It's available here: http://listing.aba.org/rsec-vote-2014-04/ Scott Roederer Estes Park -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/DF0C6D49-9EB8-4AA9-84CA-72AD0144B70B%40estesvalley.net. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
